The Latest Numbers . . . and Statistics

I have now posted pictures of 654 different women on my blog.  I remain well ahead of my pace to ensure that I will have featured a thousand different women by the time I mark the tenth anniversary of this blog in September 2016.

And before I close out 2012, I invite you to ponder my latest statistics.  Please feel free to click on the image below for a larger version of it.

As always, NBC correspondent Kristen Welker is the most popular subject on this blog by an extremely wide margin; my entry devoted to her, from July 2011, has garnered over thirteen thousand pageviews so far.  My first post devoted to fashion and beauty model Sheila Johnson, from September 2009, remains a distant but respectable second.  My posts depicting model/actress Joan Severance, actress Kaley Cuoco, and The Weather Channel personality Crystal Egger, in that order (the same order as before) round out the top five.

Below the top five, there are notable changes.  Piper Perabo has edged out Erin Gray for number six by two - two - pageviews, leaving Ms. Gray in the numero siete spot.  Piper Perabo is a younger and more current actress, and there's a whole generation of people who know of Ms. Perabo but are too young to remember Erin Gray from the early eighties, but the fact that Ms. Gray only trails Ms. Perabo here by two pageviews suggests that her overall popularity has hardly faded.

And now for the big surprises.  My post for Meg Ryan and my initial post for Willow Bay are still in the top ten, but they're both down a notch - from numbers eight and nine, respectively, to numbers nine and ten.  But look which post is at number eight - my second post depicting pictures of German model Margrit Ramme, who is to models what Volkswagen is to cars - Germany at its best. :-)

My second post devoted to Ms. Ramme has amassed 1,669 pageviews, and she's come out of nowhere to replace Somalian model Waris Dirie as the most popular non-American subject on this blog, almost as soon as Ms. Dirie replaced Canadian actress Cobie Smulders for that distinction.  I would have to conclude that a being the most popular non-American woman on my blog is an honor that doesn't last very long for the honoree.

Anyway, as anyone who's been following this blog knows, Margrit Ramme was the first model I ever noticed, really noticed, when I saw her in an ad for the first time.  Only American modeling legend Karen Graham (whom I'll be featuring again soon in a retrospective post) has ever similarly commanded my attention.  So, to honor Ms. Ramme's place on this statistical sheet - and to congratulate my followers for their impeccable taste - I offer another picture of Margrit Ramme right now - my twentieth picture of her on this blog, by my count, but not counting a picture posted here in May 2012 in which she poses with another model . . . Karen Graham.

Yes, this is a beautiful and provocative pose, the very kind of pose Margrit Ramme is known for.  No, I have no idea what year this photo is from. 

And so, with 2012 out of the way, I have a few retrospectives lined up in the first days of 2013, then it's on to another A-Z round of new subjects.  Have a happy, and a beautiful, new year. :-)  

The Beauty of Dance, Part Four: Noriko Zaragoza, San Diego Ballet, San Diego, CA

The City Ballet of San Diego isn't the only ballet company in California's southernmost major city.  There's also the San Diego Ballet, which has been going strong since it was founded in 1980.   And the Japanese-born Noriko Zaragoza (née Maruzoe) is one of its current stars.

Having studied in her native Japan and  in Australia, Noriko Zaragoza joined the San Diego Ballet in 2004.  Among the dances she's performed in are Romeo and Juliet and Romance 2012.

This completes my fourth "Beauty of Dance" series.

The Beauty of Dance, Part Four: Kendell Wood, City Ballet of San Diego, San Diego, CA

Kendell Wood has been with the City Ballet of San Diego since 2008.

Originally from Florida and having trained in North Carolina, Ms. Wood has appeared in numerous works with the City Ballet of San Diego, such as Carmina Burana, La Bayadere, A Midsummer's Night Dream, Giselle, Peter Pan, and George Balanchine's Rubies, among others.

The Beauty of Dance, Part Four: Andrea Vierra, Nashville Ballet, Nashville, TN

Andrea Vierra is another lovely member of the Nashville Ballet, having joined the company at the same time as Kayla Rowser, whom I featured earlier in this series. :-)

Originally from Connecticut, Ms. Vierra has danced in numerous works at the Nashville Ballet, having performed lead roles in Paul Vasterling’s Awaiting Redemption, Sarah Slipper’s Postcards from the Boys, and James Canfield’s Jungle, as well as a role in Twyla Tharp’s The Storyteller, among other things.

Ms. Vierra is also a choreographer in her own right, having debuted her own piece Twisted in the Nashville Ballet’s Emergence Studio Series. She is co-founder, along with several other members of the Nashville Ballet,  of a choreography project known as Works In Progress.

The Beauty of Dance, Part Four: Yuan Yuan Tan, San Francisco Ballet, San Francisco, CA

Yuan Yuan Tan is a principal dancer with the San Francisco Ballet who brings international flavor to the company, originally having from from Shanghai, China and trained there and in Stuttgart, Germany.

She joined the San Francisco Ballet as a soloist in 1995 and became a principal dancer two years later. Her credits include lead roles in Giselle, Swan Lake, Don Quixote, and The Little Mermaid. She has created roles in ballets such as The Fifth Season, Silver Ladders, and 7 for Eight. 

Ms. Tan has won gold medals at the First Japan International Ballet and Modern Dance Competition in 1993 and at the Fifth International Ballet Competition in Paris in 1992, as well at the Nijinsky Award at the former competition.  She's even hosted galas in her own name in the Far East. 

Americans outside the San Francisco Bay area got to see Ms. Tan in action in a December 2008 broadcast of PBS's "Great Performances" series, in which she danced the role of the Snow Queen in a San Francisco Ballet presentation of The Nutcracker, as choreographed by the San Francisco Ballet's own Helgi Tomasson.

The Beauty of Dance, Part Four: Kayla Rowser, Nashville Ballet, Nashville, TN

Yes, the capital of Tennessee - also the capital of country music - has a ballet company! And Kayla Rowser is one of its members.  

Originally from Conyers, Georgia, Ms. Rowser became a member of the Nashville Ballet's company in 2010 after having served as an apprentice.  Her credits with the Nashville Ballet include performing as both the Dew Drop Fairy and Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker, Cupid in Vasterling’s Carmina Burana, and a part in Sarah Slipper’s Postcards from the Boys, as well as the title role in Nashville Ballet’s 2012 performance of Firebird.

Mr. Rowser also teaches ballet to young people, which she loves. 

The Beauty of Dance, Part Four: Erica Pereira, New York City Ballet, New York, NY

Erica Pereira is another up-and-coming member of the New York City ballet's esteemed company.

Originally from Northport, New York, on Long Island, Ms. Pereira started taking ballet classes as a little girl and began her association with the New York City Ballet when she entered its School of American Ballet in 2005. She became a member of the company's corps de ballet May 2007 and was promoted to soloist in December 2009.

She has appeared in numerous dances since then, including George Balanchine's Ballo della Regina, Scotch Symphony, and Vienna Waltzes, Peter Martins' River of Light, and Jerome Robbins' 2 & 3 Part Inventions, plus too many others to list here. :-)

The Beauty of Dance, Part Four: Madison Morris, Houston Ballet, Houston, TX

Madison Morris may sound like the name of a suburb in New Jersey, but it fact it's the name of a dancer who's one of the more recent additions to the Houston Ballet company's corps de ballet. 

She joined the Houston Ballet as an apprentice in 2010 and was promoted to its corps de ballet just in time for the 2011-2012 season.

Among the dances she's performed in since joining the company are  Ben Stevenson's The Sleeping Beauty,  Stanton Welch's Velocity and John Cranko's The Taming of the Shrew. She counts classical story ballet works such as Onegin and Swan Lake among her personal favorites. 

Madison Morris is originally from North Carolina. 

The Beauty of Dance, Part Four: Lauren Lovette, New York City Ballet, New York, NY

Lauren Lovette is one of the more recent dancers to join the New York City Ballet. 

The California native started her training in North Carolina and studied at the School of American Ballet, the New York City Ballet's official school, in the mid-2000s.  She joined the company as a corps de ballet member in 2010.

Among the dances she's appeared in are George Balanchine's Apollo, Alexei Ratmansky's Russian Seasons, and Jerome Robbins' Interplay.  

The Beauty of Dance, Part Four: Darli Iakovleva, Ballet Theatre of Maryland, Annapolis, MD

Oh, Darli! :-)

Darli Iakovleva comes to the Ballet Theatre of Maryland by way of Estonia, a little country on the Baltic Sea that regained its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.  Having trained in schools in both Estonia and the U.S., she has also danced with numerous  American companies, as well as the Vanemuine Ballet and the    Estonian National Ballet in her homeland.  She's mostly worked in America, though.

Among her favorite roles in her repertoire are the pas de deux from Le Corsaire, the Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker, and principal roles in Les Sylphides. The 2012-13 season is her first with the Ballet Theatre of Maryland.

Fun fact: Her mother, Ilona Nogarr, is/was a rhythmic gymnast.  

The Beauty of Dance, Part Four: Kate Honea, Sarasota Ballet, Sarasota, FL

Sarasota is home to the first and, so far, only professional ballet company on the Florida Gulf Coast. And one of the Sarasota Ballet's leading stars is Kate Honea, a lovely native Floridian. :-)

The Miami-born Ms. Honea is a veteran of the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, and she's been with the Sarasota Ballet since 1997. She was promoted to principal in 2009.

Her repertoire includes lead and featured roles in dances such as George Balanchine's Allegro Brillante, Dame Ninette de Valois' The Rake's Progress, Sir Frederick Ashton's The Two Pigeons,  Twyla Tharp's In The Upper Room (a very popular piece, I'm led to understand), and Christopher Wheeldon's The American, among others.  She's danced the roles of both Clara and the Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker, and she counts both among her favorite parts.

The Beauty of Dance, Part Four: Tiffany Hedman, Boston Ballet, Boston, MA

Tiffany Hedman is a soloist with the Boston Ballet, and she has amassed a wealth of experience over her career.

A California native, she trained in San Francisco and got her first taste of professional ballet as a member of the Boston Ballet II auxiliary company.  After four years with the Miami City Ballet (2004 to 2008), Ms. Hedman joined the Boston Ballet's corps de ballet.  Promoted to second soloist in 2010, she moved up to first soloist in 2012.

Her Boston repertoire Mikko Nissinen’s choreography of Swan Lake and The Nutcracker, Maina Gielgud's Giselle, George Balachine's Jewels and Symphony In 3 Movements, as well as others too numerous to list here.

For more on Tiffany Hedman, go to her Web site.  Yes - she has one! :-)

The Beauty of Dance, Part Four: Mariel Greenlee, Dance Kaleidoscope, Indianapolis, IN

Yes, there are modern dance companies in the heartland.  And Mariel Greenlee is a notable performer of one of the Midwest's most prestigious modern troupes, Dance Kaleidoscope.

A graduate of Point Park University in Pittsburgh, Mariel Greenlee studied dance in New York with, among others, the Martha Graham Center for Dance, the Paul Taylor School and the David Parsons Workshop.  And, as you already know, those are pretty important institutions, as far as namesake dance schools go.

As of this writing, Ms. Greenlee is in her ninth season with Dance Kaleidoscope.  

The Beauty of Dance, Part Four: Alicia Graf Mack, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater , New York, NY

Like so many the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater's female company members, Alicia Graf Mack commands a lot of attention.

Isn't that obvious from the above photo? :-) 

Originally from Columbia, Maryland, Alicia Graf Mack was previously with the Dance Theatre of Harlem prior to joining the Ailey company in 2005. Her performance of Judith Jamison's Reminiscin' in her Ailey debut that year wowed just about everyone. Physical problems caused her to leave Ailey in 2008, and she spent the next three years in St. Louis pursuing a master's degree in non-profit while teaching dance.

At 32 years of age, however, Alicia Graf Mack returned to the Ailey company in 2011, much to the delight of modern dance fans.

The Beauty of Dance, Part Four: Lauren Fadeley, Pennsylvania Ballet, Philadelphia, PA

We now go to the other and of Pennsylvania, where we find the lovely Lauren Fadeley dancing for the Pennsylvania Ballet in Philadelphia. :-)

Lauren Fadeley, originally from Orlando, Florida, gained calculable experience after a year at the School of the American Ballet when Peter Martins invited her to join the New York City Ballet.  There she danced in numerous Martins, Balanchine, and Jerome Robbins roles.  She then went to further her dance education at Indiana University, joining the Pennsylvania Ballet in 2007, a few months after graduating from Indiana University.

Now a principal at the Pennsylvania Ballet, Ms. Fadeley has amassed a repertoire including different roles in The Nutcracker (including the Sugar Plum Fairy) as well as parts in The Four Temperaments and Agon.  

The Beauty of Dance, Part Four: Julia Erickson, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, Pittsburgh, PA

Julia Erickson, originally from Seattle, Washington, brought a passion and expertise for George Balanchine's works to the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre when she joined the company as a corps de ballet member in 2001.

Her repertoire includes roles in the Balanchine works Sylvia Pas de Deux, Serenade, and The Four Temperaments - among others.  She danced the dual role of Odette and Odile in Balanchine's Swan Lake, a role she herself considers a turning point in her career. 

Promoted to a soloist position in 2004, she became a principal in 2009.  At five feet, eight inches tall, she's reported by Dance magazine to be the tallest female principal with Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre. 

The Beauty of Dance, Part Four: Erica Lynette Edwards, Joffrey Ballet, Chicago, IL

Erica Lynette Edwards is a stalwart of the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago, one of the most prestigious companies in the United States.

In the decade or so, as of now (2012), that she's been with Joffrey, she has appeared in numerous works, such  Apollo, Appalachian Spring, and Cinderella (in which she danced the role of the Fairy Godmother), The Green Table ( as the Partisan Woman), and a pas de deux in Light Rain. 

Ms. Edwards has also lent her time to teaching in different school and community programs in the metropolitan Chicago area, and she was even featured in Robert Altman movie The Company. 

She's also been included in the children's book "Beautiful Ballerinas," so I'm obviously not the only one who thinks she's gorgeous. :-) 

The Beauty Of Dance, Part Four: Patricia Delgado, Miami City Ballet, Miami, FL

Yes, she's Jeanette Delgado's sister! And how many ballet companies can claim to have two sisters, both of them principals?  And both of them beautiful? :-D

Patricia Delgado is the older of the two sisters (Jeanette came first here because I presented them alphabetically), and she had the same training Jeanette had, at the same schools.  She's been a principal dancer with the Miami City Ballet since 2007.

Patricia's dances have included the 'Man I Love' pas de deux in Who Cares? and Sanguinic in The Four Temperaments. 

Patricia has never had any rivalry issues with her kid sister, a testament to how their mother, a psychologist, and her father, a teacher, raised them.   

The Beauty of Dance, Part Four: Jeanette Delgado, Miami City Ballet, Miami, FL

Jeanette Delgado isn't just a part of the Miami City Ballet.  She's a part of Miami.

The principal dancer for the Miami City Ballet was born and raised there and trained at the company's school, as well as at the Liana Navarro and Vivian Tobio Ballet School.  She joined Miami City Ballet as a company apprentice in 2003; she was a principal company member five short years later. :-) 

The Beauty of Dance, Part Four: Frances Chung, San Francisco Ballet, San Francisco, CA

Part of the reason I feature dancers on this blog in December is because many people attend the ballet during the Christmas holiday season, especially performances of The Nutcracker.  So, in presenting the first ballet dancer of this fourth edition of "The Beauty of Dance," it's only appropriate that I feature a woman who's well associated with The Nutcracker.  In the case of the San Francisco Ballet's Frances Chung, that would be an understatement.

Ms. Chung, originally from Canada, has danced no fewer than three roles in that holiday ballet since she joined the San Francisco Ballet in 2001 - the Sugar Plum Fairy, the Grand Pas de Deux Ballerina, and the Snow Queen.  Other roles she's danced in the City By the Bay's prestigious company have included Myrtha in Giselle, the Enchanted Princess in The Sleeping Beauty, and Swanilda in Coppélia.  

Ms. Chung has been a principal dancer with the San Francisco Ballet since 2009, having been a soloist in the four years before that.  She was a finalist and prize winner at the Prix de Lausanne in Switzerland in 2000, which no doubt helped her get her Frisco gig. :-)  

The Beauty of Dance, Part Four: Sarah Braverman, Parsons Dance, New York , NY

No, this is not a post referring to the fictional character played by Lauren Graham on the TV series "Parenthood!" This is a real Sarah Braverman, and she's a dancer with the Parsons Dance modern company!

The real Sarah Braverman was born in Chicago and raised in California, and she received her training through the Royal Academy of Dance, which also offers classes in the United States.

Ms. Braverman has made a reputation for herself in very short order.  She co-founded the AM Dance Project company in 2006 and also auditioned for Parsons, both while still in college.  She graduated from Marymount Manhattan College in 2008 and joined Parsons that same year.

Here's an interview article from 2011 featuring Ms. Braverman in her own words. :-) 

The Beauty of Dance, Part Four: Alana Allende, Taylor 2, Paul Taylor Dance Company, New York, NY

Alana Allende joined the Paul Taylor Dance Company's "Taylor 2" troupe in 2010, and she brought a great deal of experience to it.

The New Jersey native held an Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater fellowship for five years (2003 to 2008) and distinguished herself by performing Judith Jamison's Hymn for an anniversary recital when she first started.  She performed with CityDance's CityDance2 in Washington, D.C., and she helped to promote the art in metropolitan Washington schools while a member of that company.   

The Beauty Of Dance: Part Four!

Though I hadn't planned it this way, I have settled into featuring dancers - ballet dancers and modern dancers, primarily - on this blog every other December, in even-numbered years.

I'm starting my fourth series of beautiful dancers at a time when ballet seems to be in trouble.  Despite the popularity of other forms of dance, as evidenced in the big ratings for dance competition television shows, the popularity of ballet is fading; profiling New York City Ballet choreographer Peter Martins for "60 Minutes" only recently, correspondent Lesley Stahl (featured here on this blog, in April 2011), a ballet fan herself, reported that young people find ballet too stodgy and inauthentic.  Modern dance, at least, seems to be doing better; a PBS Newshour report from this past week on the modern dance company TuDance in St. Paul, Minnesota, focused on the TuDance's growth and popularity in the Twin Cities area since the company was founded in 2004 . . . although correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro noted that raising enough money to run both the company and its school can be difficult.

So, given the hardships the U.S. economy has faced in recent years - not to mention the disdain for high art among the American general public - it's imperative for those of us who can attend a dance performance to do so, and support the arts.  I myself have taken in performances of the American Ballet Theatre, although, more recently, my own economic situation has made that difficult.

So, yes, see a dance performance if you can.  And when you do, here are some of the lovely women that, depending on where you live, you'll get to see. :-)